Beatles audition tape up for auction

The Beatles' demo tape, famously rejected by Decca Records in 1962, is up for auction.

The recording has never been officially released, though it is said to be of good sound quality. "It is totally unique and the sound quality is crystal clear," Ted Owen, of auctioneers the Fame Bureau tells The Telegraph. "They are copying the American style, the style of artists like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry. Those were the days of Rock and Roll and everybody who was trying to make a name for themselves were trying to replicate that style."

The band were refused a contract by the Decca label, later home to The Rolling Stones, when executive Dick Rowe decided that guitar music was "on the way out". He told the band they had "no future in showbusiness". Within months, they signed to EMI and soon became the biggest band in the world.

Then-Beatles manager Brian Epstein paid for the ten-track tape to be produced and gave it to an executive associated with EMI. It was sold in 2002 to a buyer of music memorabilia for Hard Rock Cafe, who has now put the tape up for auction with a pre-sale estimate of £30,000.